Corsair

“Absolutely,” Juan said without taking his eyes off the horizon. “Marquis of Queensbury rules, remember? Those are the restrictions we’ve placed on ourselves. Come to think of it, actually, I could have been a little more detailed in the report. I didn’t mention that Mansour was bent over one of his men trying to get his weapon in such a way that his head was on the other side of the knee I blew out. I don’t believe the good Marquis ever said anything about bullets overpenetrating.”

Max chuckled. “I think that’s true. Say, what was it Hux told you just before Hali arrived?”

“I’m not sure if you want to know.” There was an odd undercurrent in Juan’s voice. “I’m still trying to get my mind around it.”

“Go ahead, I can take it,” Max said in a way to lighten the suddenly somber mood.

“She managed to analyze the fluid that leaked out of the jewel. It was pretty degraded, and there was only a minute amount, so she can’t verify her findings. Her official report states ‘inconclusive.’ ”

“But . . . ?”

“It was human blood.”

“Could be anybody’s. Al-Jama might’ve made that jewel himself and used his own.”

“Carbon dating puts the sample between fifty b.c. and eighty a.d. The real kicker is, she only found female DNA.”

“It’s a woman’s blood?”

“No, the chromosomes proved the blood came from a man, only he had one hundred percent mitochondrial DNA, even outside the mitochondria, and please don’t ask me to explain. Hux tried and just gave me a headache. Bottom line is, the mitochondrial DNA is only passed on to us through our mothers.”

Max felt a chill despite the balmy weather. “What does it mean?”

“It means that the mother of whoever that blood belonged to provided all his DNA. One hundred percent. The father made zero contribution. It was almost as if he didn’t exist.”

“What are you saying?”

“Her words were something like if she were to imagine the blood work of a person who was of virgin birth, what we found was it.”

“Jesus.”

Max said it as a blasphemous expression of awe, but Juan responded to his comment anyway. “Apparently.”